Herbert S. Mitchell
Herbert Mitchell (26 February 1891 - 17 January 1971), also known as 'Sean' Mitchell was an Irish Protestant wool buyer, accountant, communist and former captain of the Cork No.1 Brigade of the IRA. He is featured in the memoir 'The Man with the Long Hair: The Spirit of Freedom in a Woman's Story' written by his wife, Irish author Maud Mitchell. The memoir was published posthumously in 1993 by their youngest daughter, Dr. Ruth Mitchell-Quill (Glenwood Publications). A copy of the book is stored in the NLI Catalogue and has been used as a reference for historical works. Mitchell's Court, a Kerry Pike - based housing development, is named after the family. Early life thumb|Herbert Mitchell (circled in red) at Ganly & Sons Wool Mills in the early 1910s. Herbert Mitchell was born on 26 February 1891 in Ballincloghan, Rahan, County Offaly. He was christened Herbert James in the Church of Ireland and grew up with his mother Dorothy, a Baptist and his father Robert. His mother played the organ in the local Protestant church and his father played the uilleann pipes in his spare time. Robert described himself as agnostic, mainly to annoy his wife. He was the second eldest in his family. Herbert grew up in the privileged environment of Protestant planter stock. Unlike other local Protestant families, at an early age, he was driven in the pony and trap with his two sisters, Rubina Florence, one year older and Gertrude, one year younger to the local convent school. They attended all classes except Christian (Catholic) Doctrine. Instead, frequently during the catechism class, the Choir Sister took Herbert and his sisters into the choir and taught them to play the organ. Gertrude and Rubina both died from diphtheria when he was eleven years old. Like other Victorian households, children were excluded from the visitations of death. When another of his sisters, Millicent, was on her deathbed, dying from tuberculosis, his mother was informed that a Catholic priest was the only religious figure available, offering to give the last rites. Dorothy replied, saying, "I'd rather she die a Protestant than live a Catholic". Mitchell took an interest in the family wool business as a teenager. At the age of sixteen his maternal Uncle Sam Lowe, of the Athlone Woollen Mills took him to wool auctions in Reading, England. He had a precocious knowledge of wool and wool grading, as an honour and a treat his uncle allowed him to bid for lots. He was described by relatives as having an 'uncanny genius of absorbing all there was to know about matters he was interested in that made him a worthwhile friend'. In later life when a daughter of his, based in the West Country, Somerset sent him a wool staple to identify, he was able to identify it to an old and scarce mountain sheep on the Welsh/West Country border. After finishing college, he joined the wool firm in Athlone. During these early years he frequently attended wool auctions in Bradford and Reading. One of the biggest influences in his teenage years had been a nearby Jesuit school. He built on this during his time in Athlone and became deeply interested in the life and works of Cardinal Newman. He entered the Catholic Church in 1915 and took the name Ignatius. His conversion was a terrible blow to his mother who, at that time asked him pithily, "Son, did I not rear you well enough?" He had been very attached to his family and this final break with them caused him deep pain. He had previously fallen out with his father, one incident involving Robert injuring Herbert's hunting horse whilst riding it, which caused a rift between them. IRA Activities Herbert and Maud moved to Kerry Pike, County Cork circa. 1918 as part of their involvement in the IRA. Herbert became a captain of the Cork No.1 Brigade, alongside fellow captain Tomas MacCurtain, up to his death in 1920. In one incident circa. 1921, when the Black & Tans ( officially the Royal Irish Constabulary Special Reserve, a force of temporary constables) arrived at their house, Glenwood, in Kerry Pike, looking for Mitchell, they questioned the oldest child Mary, whom was five years old at the time. When her mother, Maud asked her about the questioning, Mary replied "I pass no remaks!" (I passed no remarks!). Mitchell spent time in Limerick Prison and Cell 44 of Cork City Gaol during the Civil War of 1922-1923, as a captain of the skeleton remnants of the Cork No.1 Brigade, along with new recruits. IRA membership fell into rapid decline from 1922 onwards. In 1929, Mitchell was sentenced to twelve months of hard labour in prison under the 1927 Public Safety Act, which was coincidentally opposed by one of his future parent-in-laws, Timothy Quill, a Labour T.D. The IRA, which had recently received a sudden bubble of membership growth at the turn of the 1930s, was temporarily legalised by the Fianna Fail government of 1932. However, many IRA members were also communists and were members of communist groups, mainly the Communist Party of Ireland from 1933 onwards. The Catholic Church was extremely hostile to the IRA and anything communist, excommunicating Mitchell. He returned to the Church of Ireland and baptised his youngest child, Ruth, in a Protestant church in Shandon after her birth in November 1935. Mitchell also never received an IRA pension due to the fact that he remained a member of the IRA and a communist after Fianna Fail banned it under their reintroduction of the Public Safety Acts. Turning down Michael Collins' offer At the beginning of the Civil War, Michael Collins invited a number of IRA captains to a reception in Moore's Hotel, Cork. Collins offered Mitchell the Command of the Southern Division of the Free State Army (also known as the National Army and later, the Irish Army). The encounter is recorded in 'The Man with the Long Hair' as; Herbert Mitchell: "You don't mean to split the IRA?" Michael Collins: "To hell with the IRA!" Herbert Mitchell: "Well, to hell with you!' Personal life As well as being a wool buyer, a paper from 1928 states that he was an accountant based in Clarke's Bridge, Cork. He was described as an outdoor man and enjoyed shooting, fishing and horse riding. He was a frequent visitor at the Mulvihill household at Coosan where he enjoyed many shooting and fishing parties and eventually married Maud on 8 September 1915 at St. Mary's Church, Athlone, County Westmeath. He had 9 children that reached adulthood and died in Kerry Pike on 17 January 1971 at the age of seventy nine. References Category:1891 births Category:1971 deaths